Two of the country's prestigious institutes joined hands with Yale University for an academic leadership programme exposing vice- chancellors and deans to best practices of institutional management in the US. The partnership of IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Kozikhode with Yale is part of the knowledge initiative launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama during Singh's visit to the US in November 2009. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday that the partnership is aimed at advancing the cause of higher education in the country and addressing the problem of leadership vacuum in higher education sector. The initiative was launched with the singing of a MoU between President of Yale University Richard Levin, Director of IIM- Kozhikode Debashish Chatterjee and Director of IIT-Kanpur Sanjay Dhande in the presence of Mr Sibal in New Delhi. The partnership will take effect from January 2011, with provision for two new centres of excellence for academic leadership at IIM-Kozhikode and at IIT-Kanpur.